Just did rod bearings odometer's wrong; Pic, possible mileage??

[tompumped]

Here's pics of the rod bearings. Odometer says 102 thousand, but there is a sticker on the driver side door from Ford that says odometer was replaced at ????, I can't read because it faded. Damn autocheck only has one recorded mileage which was from the pos I bought it from. Maybe even the previous ownwer is a member, but I highly doubt it. It was registered in Randolph NJ from 96-07, one owner. I bought it from a dealer. I just want to have an idea of what the mileage might be.
Once again I buy another sho with previous owner syndrome, this guy must've done oil changes only. At least he did that much. It seemed clean inside the engine. Now for a 60k service and clutch. I can't wait! jk

 

[Ishodu]

There have been other cars with similar reported mileage, showing the same amount of ware. IMO its not the mileage as much as how the car is treated and driven, lugging the engine and lots of dry starts would cause loads of ware on those bearings.

 

[1993MTXSHO]

yup here's my bearings from cylinder 6 IIRC with 99k miles out of my 93 mtx. My car was maintained like you can't believe cleanest engine insdie I have ever seen, it had the 60k done at 60k miles etc etc. But it was raced a lot. I pulled bearings out of my 95k mile 3.2 in my atx and they looked a little better then yours. I then pulled a set out of my 131k mile 3.2 thats in my mtx now and they looked better then my 95k mile engine.

 

[SHOtime2511]

props to you for changing the bearings before any spun.

 

[NovaSS]

take your vin number to a ford dealer and they may be able to pull an Oasis report showing the milage of the odometer swap.

 

[tompumped]

thanks for the responses. I'm planning on doing the clutch in the spring. I know it's recommended to pull the pan to change the carrier gasket. Is it necessary? I'd rather not have to pull it because my hoist will be in the way.
I will go get an oasis report if I can, I never heard of that.
Those bearings look pretty bad, I can't believe it was maintained and that still happened. I just have to say it, but i'm sure most people on here have no idea what abuse these engines can take. I more then abused my first sho, and it never missed a beat. Now I have respect and a little self control.

 

[firstgen89sho]

Oasis is no good for anything over 10 years old.....

 

[luigisho]

There have been much worse (and spun) bearings in that mileage range. This maintenance was really smart. If the oil was changed regularly the motor should be good to go. Now the rest of the car....you never know.

 

[1993MTXSHO]

thanks for the responses. I'm planning on doing the clutch in the spring. I know it's recommended to pull the pan to change the carrier gasket. Is it necessary? I'd rather not have to pull it because my hoist will be in the way.
I will go get an oasis report if I can, I never heard of that.
Those bearings look pretty bad, I can't believe it was maintained and that still happened. I just have to say it, but i'm sure most people on here have no idea what abuse these engines can take. I more then abused my first sho, and it never missed a beat. Now I have respect and a little self control.

Here is my take on why the rod bearings in this car wear, now take this how you will as it is only my opinion and I have not really done much testing on this yet. Now this is all assuming it was a FULLY MAINTAINED CAR, obviously not changing oil, not letting the car warm up (even in summer time, yes remember 85 degrees is still pretty cold for an engine) before taking off will hurt the bearings even more. Also remember oil does not come to complete temperature as fast as you coolant does, so just because the coolant gauge is in the normal zone, does not mean its ok to hammer it just yet, this especially applies in the winter time.

Now for my possible bearing failure reasons:

1) The stock oil pump has a very low pressure at idle, so the rod bearings will probably see a little more wear then some cars. I know my mustang runs a good 40 psi at idle (whole different animal, but just to make my point) the sho runs less then 10psi IIRC.

2) This engine loves to rev and we all love to rev it, now as a basic lubrication law we normally want about 10psi of oil pressure per 1000 rpm. Our redline (before we all install chips and rev to 8k+) is 7k rpm, which means we should be making 70psi of oil pressure. Well the stock pump blows off at 60psi, so anything after 6k rpm is going to start to wear the bearings a little more then normal. Now the further and further up in the rpm range you go wear starts to go up exponentially, and remember oil pressure is still staying at 60psi. Oil is starting to get smashed out from between the crank and bearings and it is running metal on metal at insanely high rpm's and almost 100% of the time at WOT, aka highest load on the crank/bearings. Now I realize pressure is not equal to flow, because I know the sho has some pretty large oil galleys (I have had my fair share of these things apart) and flows very well, but I still feel this is a contributing factor.

3) The bearings are just plain to skinny and should have been wider to distribute the load, this may or may not be the case, just somethinh I'm throwing out there as I do no know much about how wide bearings have to be to work properly.

Those are the 2-3 main reasons aside from people not warming the car up, running the wrong types of oil, not changing oil etc. Now you may say well my other cars get the **** beat out of them and they're all fine. Well re-read my reasons, I bet most of your other cars have better idle oil pressure and don't rev to 8k rpm. I feel the largest part of this is oil pressure not being correct at high rpm, and at idle, I also do NOT feel that transmission type has anything to do with it, because I have seen just as many atx cars spin bearings as mtx's. I believe people feel mtx's spin bearings more because they hear of them more on this forum where more members own mtx's I took a few polls on these things a year or so ago to find out this information and that is what I base that statement on. So IMO the only real way to end the excessive bearing wear is to have an aftermarket oil pump installed that will have good pressure at idle and all rpm's. However for the price/fab work to make such a system, changing the bearings every 75k miles miles is probably cheaper/easier for most people

 

[tompumped]

Interesting, I didn't think the bearings were that much skinnier than my small block chevy, but I don't remember. I figured there wasn't an aftermarket option for an oil pump. I've actually never even seen a sho oil pump.
I wonder if guys with worked motors are at risk because of pressure issues.
I know you can't compare the two, but I worked for someone that built HP engines for classic muscle cars, and he never used a high pressure pump. He said you want the volume not pressure, but then again we never built a rev happy small block. Something I can't wait to do.

I probably should've adjusted the valves first, as they're ticking a little. I don't think that's normal for these engines. My first sho did it, but I never adjusted the valves.

 

[luigisho]

The fuel injectors make a loud ticking noise. Might just be those.

 

[1993MTXSHO]

Interesting, I didn't think the bearings were that much skinnier than my small block chevy, but I don't remember. I figured there wasn't an aftermarket option for an oil pump. I've actually never even seen a sho oil pump.
I wonder if guys with worked motors are at risk because of pressure issues.
I know you can't compare the two, but I worked for someone that built HP engines for classic muscle cars, and he never used a high pressure pump. He said you want the volume not pressure, but then again we never built a rev happy small block. Something I can't wait to do.

I probably should've adjusted the valves first, as they're ticking a little. I don't think that's normal for these engines. My first sho did it, but I never adjusted the valves.

yes you do want flow, but think of it like this, if you're flowing 60psi, and the engine is slamming harder and harder down on the bearings, it is going to take more pressure to hold that same thickness of oil film. Also as stated above injectors tend to make noise when they get older, that's probably what that ticking is. But I would do an upper 60k if you have no record of one being done. My car ran a **** of a lot better after I did it, and none of my valves were even out of spec. If yours are, you you will notice even more I am sure.

 

[itwonder]

My experience doesn't support the theory of a relationship between bearing wear and high RPM or low idle oil pressure. The majority of the miles on my SHO are highway miles, thus comparatively little time idling. It is rev'ed to high RPM rather infrequently. The oil for the first 180K miles was Mobil 1 changed every 5,000 miles. My bearing wear was comparable to others I have seen when they were changed. I had frankly expected to see lower than typical wear, but that was not the case.

 

[1993MTXSHO]

My experience doesn't support the theory of a relationship between bearing wear and high RPM or low idle oil pressure. The majority of the miles on my SHO are highway miles, thus comparatively little time idling. It is rev'ed to high RPM rather infrequently. The oil for the first 180K miles was Mobil 1 changed every 5,000 miles. My bearing wear was comparable to others I have seen when they were changed. I had frankly expected to see lower than typical wear, but that was not the case.

Do you warm your car up every time you drive it? If you do it experiences idle time and wears the bearings, if you do not, it experiences not warmed up wear. At least in my theory. Also are you the original owner of that car? If not who knows what that car has been through throughout its life.

NVM just read your sig, well your car is a good test piece as well as mine as of how a well maintained car can suffer bearing wear as well. My 99k mile bears (posted above) obviously destroyed on a maintained car, vs my 131k mile bearing that showed no copper at all. There has to be something that causes some cars to wear horribly and some to not, we just have to figure out what that something is.

 

[AREA 91]

Do you warm your car up every time you drive it? If you do it experiences idle time and wears the bearings, if you do not, it experiences not warmed up wear. At least in my theory. Also are you the original owner of that car? If not who knows what that car has been through throughout its life.

Going off of his sig, he is the origional owner and at 200K.:wave:

P.S. You're sister is hot! (inside joke)

 

[tompumped]

yes you do want flow, but think of it like this, if you're flowing 60psi, and the engine is slamming harder and harder down on the bearings, it is going to take more pressure to hold that same thickness of oil film. Also as stated above injectors tend to make noise when they get older, that's probably what that ticking is. But I would do an upper 60k if you have no record of one being done. My car ran a **** of a lot better after I did it, and none of my valves were even out of spec. If yours are, you you will notice even more I am sure.

The only issues I have are minor hard starting. I did the cylinder balance test and it passed, but I don't know how good that test actually is. I have no codes. I tried running marvel in the gas and it seemed to help.
I have a set of motorcraft wires that have been sitting around for maybe 5 years, they were off my first SHO. Would they go bad from sitting? Also, I remember on my first sho that aftermarket wires and autolite double platinum plugs were not good. The wires didn't last long at all, and i'm pretty sure the plugs fouled out quick also.
Do they make good aftermarket wires for the SHO that last?

 

[rubydist]

The plug wires will not go bad from sitting on the shelf - they go bad from heat on the engine. I've had good luck with Bendix and Delco wires on mine, as well as Motorcraft.

From what I've seen, the mtx cars are much harder on rod bearings than the atx cars. This, imho, is because its possible to pull virtually no torque from the engine at low rpms on the atx, while its possible to fully load the engine at relatively low rpms on the mtx. The oiling system on these engines is relatively low pressure, high volume compared to "normal" engines, so the 10psi/1000rpm 'rule' doesn't apply, however, high loads at low rpms (where there is much lower pressure/flow and more time for the film to break down) are going to be harder on the rod bearings.

If idling were ******* the rod bearings, none of these engines would hold together....

The point about warmup is very well taken - even if the coolant comes up to operating temp in 5 minutes of operation, it still takes approx 20 minutes to get the oil up to operating temp.

 

[1993MTXSHO]

Going off of his sig, he is the origional owner and at 200K.:wave:

P.S. You're sister is hot! (inside joke)

haHA! I edited before you called me out! and Brian Brian Brian... ain't she a little young for you?:laugh_ti:

 

[1993MTXSHO]

From what I've seen, the mtx cars are much harder on rod bearings than the atx cars. This, imho, is because its possible to pull virtually no torque from the engine at low rpms on the atx, while its possible to fully load the engine at relatively low rpms on the mtx. The oiling system on these engines is relatively low pressure, high volume compared to "normal" engines, so the 10psi/1000rpm 'rule' doesn't apply, however, high loads at low rpms (where there is much lower pressure/flow and more time for the film to break down) are going to be harder on the rod bearings.

If idling were ******* the rod bearings, none of these engines would hold together....

The point about warmup is very well taken - even if the coolant comes up to operating temp in 5 minutes of operation, it still takes approx 20 minutes to get the oil up to operating temp.

I have to say, my atx will shift quite early and lug the engine a decent amount before downshifting. I have to say my atx lugs itself more then I ever lugged my mtx (I now shift my atx and use the OD off button to prevent this). Also not many people will be at low rpm's in an mtx and just floor it. But as far as idling, these engines don't hold together they blow up all the time due to rod bearing failure, I am not saying that is the route cause, I was just thinking it may be part of the issues as it can slowly wear the bearings. But I could be wrong I have been in the past

 

[AREA 91]

haHA! I edited before you called me out! and Brian Brian Brian... ain't she a little young for you?:laugh_ti:

Sorry, I couldn't resist. I have been VERY sick the past couple of days and am finally getting better. Hence the scarsim.